Google Chrome operating system may cause a conflict of interest for Eric
Schmidt.

Google Chrome and Apple logosPhoto: AP/PA

By Emma Barnett, Technology and Digital Media Correspondent

12:39PM BST 10 Jul 2009

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and chief executive, says he will have to assess his role as director of rival tech company Apple, in light of his company’s decision to launch an operating system, the Google Chrome OS.

Critics have raised the concern that there might be a conflict of interest in Mr Schmidt holding both positions, as Apple also produces its own operating system.

He has sat on the Apple board since 2006 but yesterday revealed to reporters, at the Sun Valley Media and Technology conference, that he would be talking to Apple chief, Steve Jobs, about the issue.

“I’ll talk to the Apple people. At the moment there is no issue,” he explained.

Earlier this week, Google announced it would be launching a new operating system called Google Chrome OS. In what has been seen as the most direct bid to rival Microsoft Windows’s market share in this area, Google aims to launch the cloud based system in the second half of 2010.

Mr Schmidt’s Apple role has prompted criticism as both Google and Apple have common interest in web browsers and mobile phone systems. However, these potential conflicts have never caused him to give up his directorship.

News Corporation’s chief Rupert Murdoch has used the conference as a platform to quash rumours he was looking to acquire Twitter, the microblogging service which has famously yet to turn a profit. He has also confirmed that he will not sell MySpace, his struggling social network, despite having made 720 global redundancies in the last three weeks, because the company had become “too bloated”.